Massachusetts officials ask residents to lend a ‘helping hand’ and offer migrants ‘an extra room’

Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll asked state residents Wednesday to open their doors and assist housing migrants after the Democratic governor, Maura Healey, declared a state of emergency Tuesday as the state is faced with a vast shortage of shelters.

“Most importantly, if you have an extra room or suite in your home, please consider hosting a family. Housing and shelter is our most pressing need and become a sponsor family,” Driscoll said.

Please consider hosting a family.

— Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

Driscoll’s comments echoed Healey’s statement Tuesday in calling on residents to “offer a helping hand.”

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“This is a national issue that demands a national response,” Healey said during a press conference at the State House in Boston. “In the meantime, we’re simply asking the federal government to use the tools already available to give these brave parents a chance to work and support their families. At the same time, we’re calling on everyone in Massachusetts to come together, help us meet this moment in our state, and offer a helping hand.”

A view of the Massachusetts State House, Boston. (Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images, File)

Their calls for assistance from residents come after Healey announced that a state of emergency exists “due to rapid and unabated increases in the number of families with children and pregnant people — many of them newly arriving migrants and refugees — living within the state but without the means to secure safe shelter in our communities.”

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The state said there are nearly 5,600 families or more than 20,000 people in the state shelter system. Massachusetts is a right to shelter state, and must provide emergency housing to families in need.

Healey said there are numerous contributing factors to the migrant crisis, including “federal policies on immigration and work authorization” as well as a lack of affordable housing and the end of COVID-era programs.

More than a thousand migrants awaiting entry into the United States from Juarez, Mexico. (Fox News Digital / Jon Michael Raasch)

Healey said she hopes the emergency declaration will provide more federal funding, and expedite work permits for immigrants.

The governor’s press office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.